The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is hoping a new challenge will help put an end to the honey bucket in rural Alaska. Over 6,000 homes in the bush don’t have running water and sewer service. And the state and federal government can’t afford to install expensive centralized systems that are difficult to maintain in those small villages. So the state wants to encourage innovators to form teams to design a new type of system that could work.
Bill Griffith, with DEC, came up with the idea for the challenge.
Lori Townsend is the chief editor, senior vice president of journalism and senior host for Alaska Public Media. You can send her news tips and program ideas for Talk of Alaska and Alaska Insight at ltownsend@alaskapublic.org or call 907-550-8452. Read more about Lori here.